Protecting China´s water bodies

Protecting China´s water bodies

In December last year the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms approved to implement the river chief system across the country to better promote coordination among government departments to protect the country’s water bodies.

A lot is still to be done. Although governments at all levels have made great efforts to control water pollution, the condition of China’s water bodies has worsened over the past four decades. The quality of water in one-third of China’s rivers is below the third level of the national water quality standard, mainly because local governments fail to strike the right balance between economic development and environmental protection. Local governments sacrifice the environment for economic growth, and water management still uffers from a lack of coordination.

DRAGON-STAR is funded by FP7, aiming to support the Chinese participation in Horizon 2020, the reciprocity originating from the signed EU-China Scientific Cooperation Agreement, the bilateral cooperation in scientific, technological and industrial research and innovation fields, and the ongoing EU - China Innovation Cooperation Dialogue.

DRAGON-STARPLUS follows its predecessor (DRAGON-STAR), in its important mandate to provide support services to European and Chinese researchers and policy makers, and to offer a flexible platform to facilitate policy discussions between European and Chinese stakeholders. The project has received funding under European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement No645775